BIG OMAHA 2010

May 13-15 in Omaha, NE

Once again being held at the wonderful KANEKO facility.

Big Omaha is a culmination of the amazing entrepreneurial energy taking place on the Silicon Prairie.

There's a new generation of innovators and entrepreneurs who are passionately making their mark on our community and Big Omaha is for them. This event brings together the region's best and brightest to motivate, challenge, excite and connect with one another, and in turn raise the bar on the level of work we're producing.

Big Omaha is just around the corner and we're excited to share the amazing speakers who will be coming into town for this year's event.

Tony Hsieh is the author of "Delivering Happiness" and the CEO of Zappos. In 1999, Tony sold LinkExchange, the company he co-founded, to Microsoft for $265 million. He then joined Zappos as an advisor and investor, and eventually became CEO, where he helped Zappos grow significantly while simultaneously making Fortune magazine's annual Best Companies to Work For list. In November 2009, Zappos was acquired by Amazon.com in a deal valued at $1.2 billion on the day of closing.

Dennis Crowley is the Co-Founder of foursquare, a service that mixes social, locative and gaming elements to encourage people explore the cities in which they live. Previously, Dennis founded Dodgeball, one of the first mobile social services in the US, which was acquired by Google in 2005.

Scott Harrison is the Founder of charity: water, a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Scott had made his living for years in New York as a promoter of top nightclubs and fashion events. After a visit to West Africa in 2004, his life was forever changed. When he returned, what started as a birthday party campaign exploded into an organization which today serves more than a million people with clean water.

Melody McCloskey is the Co-Founder of StyleSeat, a company helping small businesses grow using the web. Previously, she managed video analytics and started the digital distribution department at Current TV. Melody is obsessed with entrepreneurship and helping business owners thrive.

Matt Mullenweg is the Founder of Automattic, the company behind Wordpress.com, Akismet, Gravatar, IntenseDebate and more to come. He's been named one of PC World’s Top 50 People on the Web, Inc.com’s 30 under 30 and Business Week’s 25 Most Influential People on the Web. A Texas native, Matt holds the position of Chief BBQ Taste Tester of Automattic for which he travels the world, sampling cuisine and comparing it to the gold standard of his home state's BBQ.

David Hauser is the Co-Founder of Grasshopper, Chargify and Grasshopper Labs. David is a technology startup veteran. He served as one of the co-founders of Return Path, an email performance management company, and was the founder of WebAds 360, an ad-serving technology provider for small and mid-sized businesses. He is one of the youngest co-founders to be named to Inc.’s list of 500 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America.

Scott Belsky is the Founder and CEO of Behance, a company that develops products and services to organize the creative world. Scott believes that the greatest breakthroughs across all industries are a result of creative people and teams that are especially productive. Scott has committed his professional life to help organize creative individuals, teams and networks.

Alexa Andrzejewski is the Founder of Foodspotting, a visual local guide that lets you find dishes instead of just restaurants, powered by people who take pictures of their food. Since launching in January 2010, the Foodspotting iPhone app has attracted over 85,000 downloads and 35,000 food sightings, and has been mentioned on TechCrunch, The New York Times and CNN Blogs. Previously, Alexa was a user experience designer for Adaptive Path.

Matt Galligan is the CEO and Co-Founder of SimpleGeo, a company providing ready-to-use location infrastructure for app developers. He previously founded Socialthing, a startup that was chosen to be part of the inaugural year of TechStars. Socialthing.com went into private beta in March 2008 and it was acquired five months later by AOL.

Danae Ringelmann is the Co-Founder of IndieGoGo, an online crowdfunding platform for ideas created to democratize fundraising. With a passion for helping artists and entrepreneurs embrace the DIWO (Do-It-With-Others) approach, Danae serves as an advisor to The Conversation, a grassroots gathering of filmmakers, investors, entrepreneurs and journalists interested in the new opportunities technology is presenting. Fast Company recently named Danae one of the Top 50 Women Innovators in Technology.

Justin Shaffer is the Founder and CEO of Hot Potato, an early-stage startup connecting friends and fans around live events. Prior to founding Hot Potato, Justin served as Senior Vice President, New Media at MLB Advanced Media L.P., the online arm of Major League Baseball. Justin is a proven innovator in the technology sector and he and his team have been widely recognized for their efforts building MLB.com.

Rachelle Hruska is the Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Guest of a Guest, a new media website and newsletter chronicling the social and cultural lives of young New Yorkers. With readership on the rise, Guest of a Guest has expanded its offices to the Hamptons, Los Angeles, and Washington DC. Rachelle is a Nebraska native and Creighton University alum.

Jason Fried is the Co-Founder and President of 37signals, a Chicago company committed to building the best web-based tools possible with the least number of features necessary. In addition to their products Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack, Campfire, Ta-da List and Writeboard, 37signals developed and open-sourced the Ruby on Rails programming framework. Jason has co-authored three books: "Defensive Design for the Web," "Getting Real," and current New York Times Bestseller "REWORK."

Gary Vaynerchuk is the Founder of WinelibraryTV and the New York Times bestselling author of "Crush It! Why Now Is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion." Through Gary's dedication and hustle, he helped take his family's business, Winelibrary, from $3 million to $45 million in a few short years. Gary's most recent project includes working alongside his brother AJ to launch VaynerMedia, a social media storytelling agency.

Details

Big Omaha is held in the beautiful KANKEO space in the historic Old Market.

KANEKO is a new kind of organization - not a museum - not a gallery - not a library nor a research center - but an open space for open minds that nurtures and promotes creativity in the arts, sciences, and philosophy.

Through progressive exhibitions, performances, lectures, symposia, and innovative programming we encourage people to explore and experience the creative process that is essential to all human activity.

More Stuff

About

Big Omaha is Silicon Prairie News’ (SPN) premier
event, held each May in Omaha, Nebraska.

In 2009, the inaugural event brought together 400-plus
entrepreneurs, innovators and creatives to hear almost a dozen
nationally-recognized speakers of the like. The goal of the event
was simple: inspire attendees to follow their passions, build the
businesses they love and strengthen their creative communities.

Since its founding in 2008, SPN’s mission has been to build
community amongst the region’s creative class. With a team
of contributors, SPN profiles and reports on entrepreneurs and
startups, as well as covers tech- and entrepreneur-focused
events.

Big Omaha 2010 is a wrap!

The second annual Big Omaha event, held May 13-15, 2010, at KANEKO, was a smashing success.
Thanks to the over 500 individuals who attended, more than a dozen speakers who presented, and 20-plus sponsors who helped make it possible.

Big Omaha 2011

We're already gearing up for Big Omaha 2011 to be held May 11-13 at KANEKO. For sponsorship information, contact jeff@siliconprairienews.com.
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